Trans Care Across the Lifespan

With an ongoing and critical need for trained and welcoming health care providers to serve the transgender community, the LGBT Health Resource Center’s health equity training team will present an accredited one-day continuing education symposium on March 9th entitled “Trans Care Across the Lifespan.”

Scheduled
sessions will address issues of stigma, the local landscape of the
transgender population in Baltimore and Maryland, and best practices
for medical and behavioral health care for gender diverse children,
adolescents, adults, and elders. Attendees will also hear from a
panel of transgender community members about their experiences.
Clinicians will learn the essentials of providing compassionate and
comprehensive services to transgender and gender diverse patients
from their peers.

Our
goal is to continue to expand the number of trained, welcoming and
affirming health care providers available to the community and to
further LGBT health equity. The LGBT Health Resource Center has
made training health and human service clinicians and other workers a
key area of our mission because there is a plethora of published
research demonstrating that the professional training regarding LGB
health care is inadequate. Provider education around transgender
health care is worse than inadequate – in almost every case it is
simply missing all together.

Significant
progress was made in prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQ people
under the landmark Affordable Care Act. But the current political
landscape is littered with efforts to dismantle current protections,
and even sanction lawful discrimination, by shielding organizations
and medical care providers who claim their religious beliefs should
allow them to discriminate against and even outright refuse to
provide medical care to LGBT people.

In
addition to these barriers, insurers also fail to keep up with
current standards of care, creating barriers for patients. Even
medications prescribed by their physician and deemed to be medically
necessary are often delayed, and/or the insurance company simply
denies coverage.

A
recent poll conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and
the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health determined that more
than half of LGBT and queer Americans report they have experienced
violence, threats or harassment because of their sexuality or gender
identity. In addition, one in five LGBTQ adults has avoided seeking
medical care for fear of discrimination. Not only does this keep some
people away from needed health care, studies show it can create
lifelong stress, leading to chronic health problems like heart
disease and depression. According to multiple research sources,
between 40% and 50% of transgender people have attempted suicide.
This is a health equity crisis.

In
order to continue our work to forge LGBTQ health equity, our skilled
medical providers and trainers provide peer education and training to
all who are willing to learn. The good news is, all indications are
there are many health care providers who are willing and eager to
learn. We hope to see many of them at our symposium on March 9th.